Sun, sea and Portuguese Rose

We've arrived in a very sunny Portugal and after a super early start (so early I think it was technically still classed as the middle of the night) we're now settled by the pool.

So far our hotel, Clube Humbria, seems very nice. It's got a huge pool and a kids club. So while the boys are off enjoying themselves for a couple of hours, Alice and I are enjoying some adult time, which mostly consists of laying by the pool with the odd trip to the all inclusive bar for a refreshing cold beer. Nice.

I'll report the boys verdict of the kids club when they get back!

Hoping to meet up with our friend Claire, who lives out here, tomorrow for some splashing and sliding fun at one of the waterparks.

Anyway back to the arduous task of basking in the Portuguese sun! Perfick!

Monsters on Sky Box Office

I think Sky Box Office should offer a money back guarantee on their films (this is a suggestion rather than a complaint – in case any Sky employees are reading – I am a fan of Sky Box Office!).

We bought Monsters the other night and settled down ready for some sci-fi action. The action never came. 

The story (albeit a brief story) is about a photo journalist who had to escort his boss' daughter back to America from Mexico. Mexico has been battling for years with some squid-like aliens who landed on the planet, leaving a large part of Northern Mexico as an 'infected zone'. With the last ferry back to America gone, the pair are left with no choice but the cross the 'infected zone' by land.

We thought that once they got into the 'infected zone' it might get a bit more exciting. But no, not really.

They finally reach 'the wall' (a very big wall the US had built along the border to keep the aliens/monsters out) but it seems the big squid monsters hadn't just come to Earth for Mexico's burritos.

There were some really nice location shots but apart from that this film didn't really ever get going. It was very slow and even the occasional 'tense' moment didn't really keep me gripped.

I believe this was a low budget film (around $500,000) but low budget doesn’t have to mean low quality – look at The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, even Mad Max had less budget than this film and they were much more exciting.

On the bright side, at least I didn’t pay to go to the cinema to watch it! 

I’m going to give Monsters a 1.5 alien squid legs out of 5

P.s I've put the link to the DVD below in case you do actually want to order it - you could always wedge it under the leg of that wobbly patio table or use it as a door stop

Fright Fest Favourites

Yesterday Lauren, my friend at work, and I were talking about scary movies, which got me to thinking about what some of my favourite fright fest films are.  And as it is Friday 13^th it seems an appropriate day to write a post about some of the scariest and most sweaty palm making horror films I’ve seen.

Horror is one of my favourite film genres (there is obviously some psychological reason why we get pleasure from scaring ourselves witless) and I’m usually quite good at watching them through without breaking out in a nervous sweat.  However, there are a few films that I find myself reaching for a cushion to hide behind - because obviously if something were to be ‘coming to get me’ a cushion would be my best protection!

I do enjoy (and I use the term ‘enjoy’ lightly) the gruesome and sadistic films like Saw, Hostel and The Hills Have Eyes and the old classics are great too - think Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Exorcist. I am partial to a bit of Japanese horror (I went through of phase or ordering lots of the Japanese originals on Amazon) – The Ring, Dark Water.  They are usually quite psychological and have a tendency to feature freaky Japanese children who do weird things (freaky children are generally just scary).

Probably most of my scare sessions involve either teen American slasher flicks – Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, thriller horrors (the sort that you believe have the potential to actually happen in real life), such as Paranormal Activity,  or based on ‘true events’ type frighteners like  Wolf Creek and Adrift.  
  
Five Fright Fest Films:  
  
Last House on the Left – sort of a remake of the 60/70’s version, although not half as violent and sadistic as the originals, it still has a few scenes that are quite disturbing but the storyline is great and it is full of ‘will she won’t she’ type tension and suspense 

The Strangers – this has a lot of the things that scare me the most – strange noises from outside, looking out of windows at night, house in the middle of nowhere, creaks and jumps and provokes the ‘it could actually happen’ thought 

 The Grudge - the original Japanese version is much more freaky than the US remake with Sarah Michelle Geller but both are good cover-your-eyes watches 

The Blair Witch Project – genius when it first came out (even if the shakey handcam style made me feel slightly motion sick), mostly due to the great PR and marketing campaign surrounding it

Paranormal Activity 2 – better than the 1^st I think with lots of sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for ‘something’ pop out and make you jump moments

These are just a selection of my favourites and even though we probably spend most of the time being too scared to leave the lounge, shouting ‘you fool’ or ‘why did you do that?’ at the characters who have either opted to grab the worst weapon ever or have decided to leave the safety of the group and wander off into the dark woods on their own to ‘explore’ I am sure that jumpy, gruesome horror films will stay a regular feature in our house.  

I’m looking forward to seeing the new Scream 4 and also Insidious soon too!

Anyone got any good recommendations of horror films I could scare myself senseless with??? Post them below so I can add them to my LOVEFiLM list!  

Horror DVD

Marrakech Top Tips

So now I am back from my Marrakech trip I thought I’d sum up some of my top tips for this fantastic city.
 
Top places to eat:
 
Al Baraka
Amazing Moroccan food with friendly waiters and traditional entertainment.  Just of Jemaa El Fna square. Reasonably priced, approx £36 per head with wine

Mmmm tagine....

The Red House
Again amazing food with a Moroccan or international a la carte menus to choose from.  Beautiful décor, similar to that of the palaces!  Traditional entertainment and excellent service.  Located in Hivernage.  A bit pricier but worth treating yourself, approx £51 per head including wine  

Hold on I think I know this tune

Le Tanjia
In the southern part of the Medina, this restaurant is tucked away near Place des Ferblantiers.  A perfect lunch stop while sightseeing.  Serves Moroccan and international dishes on a beautifully decorated four floors.  Fairly reasonably priced, approx £11 per head for pizza and a beer (Moroccan style of course!)

La Bagatelle
French cuisine – delicious.  Located in the new city area in rue de Yougoslavie.  Indoor and outdoor dining and reasonably priced, approx £22 per head for 3 courses with wine
 
Top things to do:
·        Visit Jemaa El Fna square in the day and for the Night Market – watch out for the snakes though!
·        Wander around the souks
·        Take a trip to Jardin Majorelle – beautifully in both rain and sunshine
·        Have a massage at your hotel hammam (spa) or Les Bains de Marrakech is supposed to be good too
·        Touristy places to visit (these are not very expensive to get in, around 10MAD and some you can buy a bulk ticket for)
o        Musee de Marrakech
o        Medersa Ben Youseff
o        Palais El Badii (ruins)
o        Palais de la Bahia (partly still in use)
o        Tombaeux Saadiens

Jemaa El Fna square gearing up for the Night Market

Negotiating the souks

Jardin Majorelle (in the rain)

Musee de Marrakech

Medersa Ben Youseff (and the sun is coming out!)

Palais El Badii - not too shabby for ruins

Palais de la Bahia - didn't see P Diddy

Tombaeux Saadiens

Top tips for getting around

• Petit taxis are an easy way to get around.  These are the smaller cars, such as Peugeot 205, Renault 5 and Fiats etc, and although they look a little beat up they will get you from A to B cheaply.  Agree the price with the driver before you set off though and hold on tight!
• The Bus Touristique is a useful way to get around either to hop off and see an attraction or just ride it for the both the Historique and Oasis tours.  48 hour tickets are only around £15
• Before you go email your hotel and ask them to send a taxi/driver to collect you.  They will give you the price and its apparently a cheaper way than getting a taxi at the airport

I'd definitly recommend a trip to Marrakech it is a very interesting city, the people are friendly, the food is great and I'm told the weather is really nice too!

The Book of Eli on DVD (Blu-ray)

One of my LOVEFiLM installments this week was The Book of Eli with Denzel Washington.

Set in post-apocalyptic America it follows one man's path to protect a sacred book which will save mankind.
We learn that a voice had told Eli to head westward with the sacred book, which he had been doing for thirty years, and hijackers and cannibals who try to stand in his way are taken out with precision.

The fight scenes are really good and done with a certain Denzel ‘coolness’.

He arrives in a town where the leader, Carnegie (played by Gary Oldman), is searching for a copy of the Bible as he believes this will give him further power.  After discovering that Eli is in possession of a King James Bible he sets about taking it from Eli.  After a shoot out, a pursuit, a standoff and another shoot out, Carnegie eventually get the book only to discover it is written in Braille.

A wounded Eli still makes his way westward, with the help of his new companion Solara (played by Mila Kunis), and they finally arrive at Alcatraz.  In Alcatraz, Lombardi (played by Malcolm McDowell) and is collecting things from the pre-war civilation – books, music, art etc – so that they are one day able to try and rebuild society.
Eli announces that he has a copy of the bible (which they don’t have and we know that Carnegie has taken from Eli) and asks Lombardi to get a pen and paper.  Eli then begins to recite the Bible word for word from memory (unfortunately poor Lombardi has to write the whole thing out).

There are religious and political messages behind the film and showing how religion can be used for power in both good and bad ways.  However, when Eli is at Alcatraz they focus in on his eyes and I wasn’t sure whether we were supposed to believe that Eli was (warning potential plot spoiler) blind? There were a few comments throughout the film that looking back seemed to make more sense if he was but also some parts that would make it not very believable???

But anyway I liked this film and thought it looked great on blu-ray. 

I'm going to give The Book of Eli 3.5 hijackers out of 5.

Derren Brown: Svengali

A group of us went to see Derren Brown's Svengali show at Sheffield City Hall last night.

It was brilliant, funny and very clever! I'd love to tell you all about it but, in the style of Jack Bauer, I can't.  Well its not really that I'm too busy saving the world its more that the audience were sworn to secrecy.

But as I say a great show and I'd definitly recommend seeing it if you can.

Marrakech Day 4

Day 4 - Monday

Raining again today. I think we've managed to come during the 2 days of annual rainfall that Marrakech gets.  Least the umbrella sellers are raking it in.

Jellabahs are common outfits in Marrakech. They are hooded floor length kaftans and with the pointy hoods up you could be forgiven for thinking you were on the set of a Harry Potter movie. Usually in linen or wool, the rain has brought out the cagool Jellabah - very practical for a day like this.

We've had quite a busy day exploring today.

We got a taxi to the Musee de Marrakech.  Taxis can only go so far so after a few wrong turns on foot we finally found it. A spectacular building, the Musee holds numerous traditional Berber embroidery, jewellery and ceramics. But the building itself is the main attraction.

On to Medersa Ben Youssef. This is a 14th century Koranic school.  Again beautiful architecture with two of the hundred tiny student rooms made up as they would have been back then. Most of the student rooms (that were not reserved for the privileged students) were in fact quite pokey little cells. But in lovely surroundings.  Our ticket also allowed us entry to something else but we were not quite sure what it was. We took a picture of it though.

Next we wandered off into the direction of the souks. A maze of tiny streets and Aladdin's cave style shops.  We navigated the souks quite well (we didn't even need to use the phones compass!) and made our way back to Jemaa El Fna square, which even in the rain was still bustling.

Next stop was the Palais de la Bahia. Built by Grand Vizier Bou Ahmed, the palace was to house his four wives and two-dozen concubines. The rooms that you are able to see are unfurnished but the building itself is decorated beautifully with brightly coloured tiling and intricatly carved panels. The palace is still used as a royal residence so most of the 150 rooms are sealed off, unless of course you are P Diddy and you throw a $1 million party and invite a load of supermodels and celebs!

The next palace probably was just as grand and possibly even bigger than Bahia back in the day, however now the Palais El Badii is unfortunately just ruins. Impressive ruins though.

Making our way back to Place Des Ferblantiers we stopped off for Morroccon style pizza and beer in a fantastic cafe/restaurant called Le Tanjia.  Another little hidden gem.

The sky cleared and the sun started beating down so we whipped out the Ray Bans and got some snaps with blue skies in the background.

Final visit was to the Tombeaux Saadiens. These are the tombs of the golden king, Ahmed El Mansour. Apparently these were lost for a few hundred years behind high walls only to be found again in 1917.  It seems that we arrived at the same time as the three coach loads of French tourists.  Let's just say the Tombeaux are not that big.  At least mum managed to get rid of last nights chicken kebab (that she had hidden in her bag at dinner to make it look like she'd eaten it all) by discreetly chucking it over the tombs to the three hungry kittens. There is always one beady eyed kid around though isn't there.  Quickly exiting the tombs we headed back to the hotel. 

Final recommendation for the day.....dinner at The Red House. The decor was very much like the palaces we have been in today and it offers delicious Morrocan food with entertainment provided by the house musicians and belly dancer. Tres bon!

Marrakech Day 2 cont. and Day 3

Day 2 - Saturday cont...

I'll start with last night because we went to an amazing restaurant just off Jemaa El Fna square for dinner.

Before dinner we had a wander around the night market in the square.  It was just as busy, if not busier, come dusk as it was during the day.  In the evening all the food stalls are out in the centre of the square selling soups, spicy sausages, kebabs and tagines.  It smelt delicious.  Although we try our best not to look too much like typical English tourists we clearly do as everyone seemed to offer 'Asda price' food and wanted to 'see us later alligator'.  One food seller even claimed that Jamie Oliver was his 'brother from another mother'!

We weaved our way through the stalls and dodged  our way through the musicians, monkeys and array of snakes (my heart had already stopped once when a youngster thrust a wooden snake at me earlier!).

The restaurant, recommend by our hotel, was called Al Baraka, and was just off the square next to the police station.  It didn't look anything too exciting from the outside but as soon as we stepped through the door it was like a small oasis of calm and we immediately forgot the hustle and bustle of the square outside.

We were seated in the cosy Caid room on plush banquettes around a candle lit table.

We had a selection of Morroccon salads with bread, followed by rice and minced meat pastry parcels served with local cocaine (aka sugar).  Then we were served chicken and olive, lemon chicken and lamb tagines with cous cous. And just as we thought we couldn't fit any more in the waiter brought out cinnamon dusted Orange slices, pancakes and a variety of sweet biscuits. Those of you who know me will also be surprised to hear I even drank the local whisky, which was disguised as mint tea. Fortunately it was so minty you couldn't taste the tea and it was a very small glass. I thought it would be rude not to drink it.

I got so carried away with the food I almost forgot to mention the musicians who kept us entertained during our meal and also the belly dancer!

There were a few people in the restaurant but clearly not nearly as many as they usually get. The waiters told us that they had been very quiet since Thursdays attack so were grateful we'd still come and thanked us.

We got a taxi home, it was a bit like being at Alton Towers and you'd be surprised the gaps a clapped out old Peugeot 205 can fit through, but we made it. I think mum had her eyes closed for most of it!

Day 3 - Sunday

Bit rainy today. Had to buy an umbrella from an opportunistic street seller who was hovering at the bus stop.

We persevered anyway and made our way to rue Yves Saint Laurent to the Jardin Marjorelle. These beautiful gardens were originally bought and created by French painter, Jacques Marjorelle, until he passed away in 1962. The gardens have since been acquired and restored by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge.  Cacti, bamboo and bright blue, yellow and orange colours adorn this unique garden.

We had lunch in the cafe which was decked out like an Arabian berber tent. Didn't imagine I'd be enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate in Marrakech but I have to say it went down a treat.

The sun came out just in time for our appointment at the hotel hammam (spa). Skipping the traditional scrub we opted for just the massage. Am now feeling very relaxed.

Had dinner at Bagatelle on rue de Yougoslavie. It was a very nice French restaurant, which seems to be the second most popular cuisine here. Lovely!